RAP4 At Best in the West SWAT Challenge

RAP4 is proud to have been a part of the Best in the
West SWAT Challenge held recently by the Santa Clara County (California)
Sheriff's Department. This invitational competition brought together
SWAT-certified tactical law enforcement officers from across the West, to
compete in live-fire matches that tested their marksmanship and teamwork,
overall physical fitness and mental acuity under stress. The only thing missing
was force-on-force work...

...so we brought along a booth full of 468s, RAP4 handguns, and the accessories
that make our equipment truly as real as it gets. Between matches the officers
had a chance to check out our state of the art 468, and marvel at how well it
mirrored the weight, balance, and controls of the duty-issue weapons they spent
the competition with. We had plenty of professionals first mistake our paintball
gear for duty-issue firearms, their eyes widening when they learned the awesome
fact that our equipment is all compressed air powered, less lethal...and
perfectly suited to force-on-force training.

The competitions at Best in the West included the Jungle Trail, which required
teams of two to follow the trail of a fugitive through thick brush as they
encountered hostage targets and neutralized bad guy targets, detected booby
traps and were timed for speed (as well as scored for accuracy). Tactical teams
had to clear a SWAT live-fire house after forcing their way into it, using
coordinated movements to safely navigate the structure while taking out all the
hostile targets. Snipers even had to defeat a series of obstacles and running
challenges interspersed with precision long range shooting. The competitions
were made as realistic as possible, to determine who is the Best in the West.

They also served as a grand meeting of the minds of the best tactical operators
in the west, as they observed each other utilizing slightly different tactics
and learning refined techniques...and seeing what actually works, works even
better, or doesn't work at all. Between the matches they talked about gear and
training, about calls they've been on and how real-world tactical situations are
solved.

Then they came past the RAP4 booth, where we joined the discussion and steered
it towards force-on-force training. It's only relevant, we all agreed, when that
training is as real as it gets - with real people shooting real projectiles at
you in real environments, with equipment that really duplicates the point of aim
and controls of your gear. We're proud to offer equipment that fits that
training role perfectly, and to network with professionals to set up exactly
that sort of dynamic training.

Then we discussed the role of the 468 and related RAP4 gear as less lethal
munitions platforms, and things got really exciting. Cops love gear...and our
gear is the state of the art for their training and crowd control. It was a
great time to be in Santa Clara County, and a great event we're proud to
support.